Iceberg

Simon & Schuster, 1996-06-03. hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 6x1x9. [1996] signed first edition thus, Simon and Schuster (New York), 6 1/2 x 9 1/2 inches tall hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, blue paper-covered boards over navy blue cloth spine, silver lettering to spine, 252 pp. Very slight soiling and rubbing to covers, with negligible bumping to the lower tips. Nicely signed by American adventure novelist and underwater explorer Clive Cussler (1931-2020) on the title page. Otherwise, a near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in a like dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. This is a first printing (copyright page number line ending in 1) of the first American issue of this version with a new 1995 introduction, not the more common combination edition paired with his Dirk Pitt novel Mediterranean Caper. Scarce, especially signed. Authenticity of signature guaranteed in perpetuity. ~RR~ [2.0P] Just seventy-two hours ago, Dirk Pitt was lying in the hot California sun with a beautiful woman, a Scotch-rocks in one hand, but an urgent call from Admiral James Sandecker, his commander at the National Underwater and Marine Agency (NUMA), brings Pitt out of the warm Pacific breezes and straight into a North Atlantic deep freeze. The reason: the dis- covery of a long-missing luxury yacht, en route to a secret White House rendezvous, frozen solid in a million-ton tombstone of ice. Tunneling his way into the core of the berg, Pitt comes upon a gruesome scene - a crew of corpses, horribly incinerated at their posts - but the vessel's priceless cargo, which could alter the balance of world power and put the threat of annihilation at America's doorstep, has vanished. This discovery is the springboard from which Clive Cussler - The Grand Master of Adventure - launches a compelling and powerful story that takes Dirk Pitt from the remote, uninhabited tundra of Iceland to the frigid abyss of the North Atlantic, determined to force his deadly, unseen opponent - a multibillionaire in the business of playing God - to make his next move. But first Pitt will have to penetrate the shroud of mystery concealing a titanic network of international financial intrigue - and mass murder. Lives, nations, continents are at stake. And although his enemies may have the firepower as always, Dirk Pitt has the skill and the daring, the ruthlessness and resourcefulness to meet it. He also has Kirsti Fyrie, an Icelandic beauty whose twin brother died on the ice-encased yacht and who carries in her heart the secret that Pitt needs to destroy his opponents in this deadly game. Iceberg is classic Cussler.